The Website of Pat Tusler

Category Archives: Web design

Have you noticed how many websites entice you with provocative headlines? Often the headline is accompanied by a thumbnail. So you click the link and the site loads, bombarding you with adverts, videos, mailing list sign-ups and the rest. These websites do this because they want to make money. The links are known as ‘click-bait’.

And here lies the monetisation mistake.

If there was a genuine interest in sharing news, messages, interesting discoveries and the rest then things would be different. But at the present time many websites are simply in existence to make their owners money.

In the early ’90s we were told to prepare for the information super-highway. This would revolutionise our lives with fast access to data.

The reality some 25 years on is a little different.

For a start the term ‘information super-highway’ was dropped long ago in favour of ‘the Internet’. And we now are in a culture of ‘monetisation’.

So really the Internet is being used by many as a form of gold mining.

That’s not to say there’s no innovation or new ideas. But the simple reality on a day to-day basis is that more and more sites seem to be happy to cover their content in advertisements.

These advertisements usually have nothing to do with the original website. Or anything to do with the original content.

News Aggregators best for latest info.

Over the last six months I’ve been testing news aggregators. There is a good one from Apple called ‘News’ and a few on the Android platform. These aggregators take feeds from lots of sources and combine them into categorised news collections. Each aggregator allows you to completely customise the content.

The main thing I’ve observed is that content is cleaner in the aggregators. So you get the story without all the ads.

For example Wales Online have lots of stories relating to my locality. On the aggregators the Wales Online stories are organised and load really fast. If I then go to the Wales Online website to find the same story I meet video overlays and video inserts that play automatically. This is while I’m trying to read an article. So I turn off the ads and then the page jumps around while it loads another set of ads.

By this time I’m thinking to leave the site and go back to the news aggregator. Can you relate to this?

An interesting app called Medium is another slightly different tool and I’m just checking it out at the moment. It’s aimed at ‘writers and thinkers’ but so far seems full of things like ’10 ways to look clever in meetings’.

Part of the fun of being involved in website design and development is seeing the amazing websites people come up with.

Since 1999 I’ve been looking at all sorts of websites for design ideas, examples (good and bad) and general inspiration. Many of these websites are now listed in the public directory updated and expanded pages here on Tusler Design. Before that I kept them private.

Have a look and see what you think for yourself.

The websites that set the standard.

The university websites are a good standard for where the industry is heading. These sites constantly evolve reflecting trends in technology, improvements in design and more effective usability.

Most attractive websites.

The most attractive designs are in the yacht builders section and the automobile section. But there are lots of great ideas in all the categories. And you will see how the different industries compare.

For example some of the band and musician sites are fantastic. But it is mostly the more recent artists who seem to put energy into their sites. Established acts don’t put as much effort in and consequently have been left out of the directory for the time being.

Web development tools and resources as well.

You will see there is also a large section on web development resources. These are sites and tools I use and recommend to others.

Motorcycle extremes.

This has got to be one of the most challenging events in sport. These guys ride their motorbikes over the most difficult track you’ve ever seen. It has to be seen to be believed.

Having grown up in the world of sailing and racing sailing boats I never came across the insane world of motorcycle racing over impossible terrain. Yes I’d seen the Paris to Dakar and have seen the documentary Madness in the Desert but I had no idea that it was happening here in Wales.

The event is in its 14th year so its well established. Riders come from all over the world to take part in the 24 hour marathon endurance race.

There is little doubt you’ve got to be pretty fit and fairly competent to complete the full marathon. There are shorter races though with a junior 2-hour session as well before the main race begins.

Dawn to Dusk Enduro new website is a cracker!

The site is full of information about the event and links to the registration site as well. There are race videos, photo galleries and a news section, plus results from the past races.

Fire and Stars Holidays provide barns, gypsy caravans and a dairy on their eco-friendly organic farm in West Wales. They also have an old bakery in the riverside village of St Dogmaels.

All done with a bit of glam and style they offer a genuine getaway from the madness of city life. The whole thing is run by a couple of characters with all sorts of unusual and interesting stories to share.

They happily offer groups and party bookings as well. So larger groups and extended families can book accommodation for special occasions or get togethers.

Camping at Mwnt

The website gives an instant feel for the unique and wonderful location of the site. To improve the search engine recognition of the website ‘CampingatMwnt.co.uk’ was chosen as the domain name. Site includes a blog and is linked to the Facebook page for Ty Gwyn.

Completeness

Completeness is the online home of Kasturi Tusler, creative artist and crochet teacher.

The website features her crochet patterns, video crochet tutorials, a blog, downloadable recipes for home cooking (including one for homemade deodorant!). This site is also linked to Completeness’ Facebook page.

Custom House Cardigan

Custom House Cardigan is owned and run by creative designer and artist Karina Servini. The Custom House is one of Cardigan’s oldest buildings and has an atmosphere all of it’s own. It now houses a gallery and shop where over 300 local artists and craftspeople have their work on display and available to buy.

The website uses WordPress alongside an e-commerce shop using Magento E-commerce System. The whole thing is integrated within the main website.

Each website has a voice.

And the visitors listen to the voice. They do this by reading, or hearing, your text. They are influenced in this hearing, by the colour scheme, layout, type-set, and graphics of your website.

So use your unique voice

At all times keep in mind the idea of who you are talking to when writing your content. Imagine you are speaking to just one person; the reader.

Images are a powerful means of communicating

Your choice of images tell a story because, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” So, ask yourself, ‘What are you trying to say with these thousand-word images?’

Signs are useful to help guide your visitors but there is more to finding your voice and communicating effectively

Email enables direct communication and interaction without having to use the telephone or meet in person. You still have to remember your voice in your email communication.

And of course video telephony is available via Skype and other similar systems. These are an effective means of communication. Often Tusler-Design will communicate with clients over Skype. One advantage being it is instant and thus avoids long distance travel to attend meetings and briefings.

Social networks, (i.e. Facebook) are a great place to promote your messages and to interact with your ‘community’ as there is a balanced audience of male and female users. Twitter is mostly male (though not entirely) and has a different feel and emphasis to Facebook.

And lastly, it’s a personal thing

Your visitors will almost always be alone with you. Websites communicate with individuals and though you might have many visitors, few of them will be with someone else when they’re on your site.

So, why not make the most of the opportunity given us through technology and use the Internet to speak and communicate to your audience and the world at large?

Keep it Fresh

Think Long-term

Maintain a long-term vision for your website. Allow it to grow for at least five to ten years. Longevity is a powerful influence on credibility.

Keep Focused

Remain confident and determined. Just keep building your website and it will grow and develop it’s own character.

Share the Story

Tell others about your website, your services, your blog, your offers. That way they will know to keep checking the site for new content.

Review Regularly

Regularly review your visitor statistics and the pages they are looking at and using. What number of contacts come via the site? Try to create content to increase the traffic, click-throughs, contacts, sales, newsletter sign-ups, etc.

The above is a quick guide to help you in thinking through your site.

Contact Tusler Design to get your website designed and online working for you.

The Internet is actually a personal place.

Because we are all persons, (I hope you agree). We are all interacting with webpages, sites and applications all the time when we are online.

So it is a personal environment where we want to establish a connection, or relationship with our readers. This means you and me.

As website owners we can control the content of our pages so that our visitors are rewarded when they come to see us. Seem obvious doesn’t it?

Just like real customers in the real-world visitors to websites love to get fresh content, insight, ideas, inspiration, products and services. If they are pleased, and have a pleasing interaction; they come back.

3 things to remember about your visitors.

Keep your visitors in mind all the time when developing your website;

What are visitors to your website looking for?

What are they hoping to obtain from you?

How can you deliver it for them in a timely and affordable way so they want to return?

Next steps towards online success.

Take a look at our own website planning guide where you can get a good idea of what you need to include in your website.

When you’re ready either phone or email and we’ll be able to help you. Contact us.

It’s early days but I really like this new site for the Cardigan Bay Company. They have such compelling artwork its hard to resist. Looking forward to seeing what other exciting new products they create.

JR Fabrications are an established company of welding and fabrication based in Carmarthenshire. Their new website is now online at jrfabrications.com.

You can find out about all their services, read their frequently asked questions and see examples of their welding work in the gallery section. There are some excellent testimonials there as well proving the high standard of their workmanship.

Our friends over at Cardigan Island Coastal Farm Park have completely re-vamped their web site at cardiganisland.com. The previous site was in place since 2005 and the owners wanted a new look and feel whilst keeping hold of the family centered identity of the farm park.

They have static caravans and facilities for camper vans, towing caravans and tents. Wonderful location, where visitors are treated to beautiful sunsets and seals and dolphins swimming in Cardigan Bay.

There are two main groups of visitors to your website; qualified visitors and un-qualified visitors.

Qualified visitors being those people who come to your site and proceed to interact with, and do business with your company.

Regular ‘un-qualified’ visitors are those who engage with your web site but don’t buy anything or make any commitment by joining a mailing list or following you on Facebook or Twitter.

As you know yourself, real people visit sites for different reasons. It is possible to observe information about these real people by looking at the visitor data reports for particular web sites.

As a business person you are almost certainly interested in how your web site performs in relation to your bottom-line sales figures.

As the owner of a web site you are almost certainly interested in its traffic data. Meaning you are interested to know how many people have visited and how many pages they have looked at.

Beyond these overall figures there are further sources of interest. For example which pages have visitors looked at the most? How long are they spending engaging with your content?

Are they able to grasp the messages you want them to? Do they take the ‘call-to-action’ and contact you, join the mailing list, download the file or buy something from you?

Looking at the traffic data you can see trends or busy times for your site. You can see which terms visitors have used in search engines to find you. You can see which other websites on the Internet are linked to you and which give you the most traffic.

You can even set ‘goals’ in your data tracking to see how many times someone inquires, downloads a file, buys a product. And also when they make purchases you can see how they went through the buying process and if they stop you can see which page or form they left in-complete.

Over the long term you can use your traffic data to show which subject areas or themes your visitors are most interested in. You can then create more content for them and you can also point them to further calls-to-action to deepen their relationship with your company.